From ABC For Adults by British illustrator Toby Leigh: a satirical parody of a 1970s children’s alphabet primer already published in French, soon to be published in the US and via crowdfunding in the UK where certain publishers objected to some of the more controversial images, notably Q and S.

As part of the ongoing 1916 Rising Commemorations, the Fine Gael led government has arranged a special series of ‘Show Trials’ for the entertainment of the masses.

Very kindly, Irish newspapers, journalists and politicians have risen to the challenge of making this experience as close to the original as possible. To quote that memorable Irish Times 1916 editorial:

​‘We said, and we repeat, that the surgeon’s knife of the State must not be stayed “until the whole malignant growth has been removed”… Our demand that the elements of rebellion should be finally extinguished… We have called for the severest punishment of the leaders and responsible agents of the insurrection.’

Exactly as in 1916, the public has been fed a constant stream of vitriol against the defendants and those who support them. Comparisons to ISIS and labels such as ‘Sinister Fringe’ have been spat across the parliament floor in a wholly convincing portrayal of the bloodlust for vengeance which existed among the ruling class and courtiers in 1916.

The Minister for Recreations told us:

“We can’t do military trials, but we appoint the judges and control the jury. We encourage people to come along to the courts where rotten fruit & veg will be provided free of charge to throw at the guilty on their way in and out during the course of the trial. We expect it to be a huge family event”.

In a break with history, it is understood that negotiations are underway with RTÉ and SKY to televise the executions live from Kilmainham Jail where the Garda Band will play a constant loop of ‘God Save the Queen’. Seats are limited and families are advised to book early for what will be the last event in the 1916 Rising Commemorations.

That rabble, that great unwashed and of course those dirty Dubs will take to the streets on Saturday to crow their victory over us good law abiding citizens.

It’s almost as if they don’t know that removing water costs from central taxation and giving the gains away in tax cuts to top earners like us is good for them too. When us rich folks have more money in our pockets, we occasionally drop a few coppers into the grubby outstretched hand of some homeless serf, everybody wins.

When the charges were first introduced the fringers complained that bills in excess of 600 were ‘too high’, I ask you, really? The price of one nice evening at the theatre with dinner afterwards is ‘too high’ a price for them to pay so that we can cut our top rate tax? Pull the other one!
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Out of the goodness of our hearts, we agreed to cap the charges at 260 until all the proles were paying before we’d up it over a grand and they still weren’t happy!

Two hundred and focking sixty euro people, that’s 1 bottle of half decent wine, just drink something cheaper for a night, problem solved. Enda was wrong to give an inch to those whingers, should have locked the whole lot of them up.

Now that we’ve ensured a white collar only jury, that rabble rouser Murphy will get his comeuppance, the naivety of the hard left to think they’d get a fair trail in this country, Anglo friends stick together suckers.

It’s the country people I feel sorry for, forced to live in 6 bedroom mansions on sprawling lawns, they’ve been paying for water forever. Although forcing water charges on the sinister fringers won’t change the need for wells and septic tanks for our less fortunate country cousins, it will make them feel better to see the proles hammered into the ground, fair’s fair.

I hope they choke on their ‘Walk of Shame’, how dare they stand up to us. Why can’t they get it through their thick heads that they don’t matter, their votes don’t matter,

I know exactly where I and those like me won’t be on Saturday April 8th, we won’t be at Connolly or Heuston stations at 2pm.

I received this paper on Portobello bridge this morning. According to the conspicuously named “Election Times” aka campaignforkate.ie, Sinn Fein, “the party of peace and harmony” according to an unknown “Sinn Fein councillor” intend bringing us into some kind of communist utopia. Yippee!!!

Mr Hardie said the Barry Murphy-led series Irish Pictorial Weekly was the best satire “I’ve seen in any country for a long while.”

He also discussed the ‘controversial’ depiction of Squee above (but not the possibly more ‘controversial’ depiction of presidential assistant Kevin McCarthy).

Conor Brophy: “Did you bat those things around though in terms of whether you would actually go down that direction or not, because I’m thinking one of the things you don’t want to do is get into belittling people because of the way they appear.”
Sean Hardie: “It’s a very difficult one that, because sometimes what you want to try to do is get the essence of what a persons like. So, if someone is like a bear or someone is like a cow or someone is like a monkey, it’s a very useful image to have in your mind and their physical body language is bound up with it. There’s a very interesting case in point with Oliver Callan and our president as to whether you reference the fact of what our president looks like.I mean Oliver is a terrific impressionist. It’s an awkward kind of an area as to whether…I mean the fact about Michael D is – he’s a great man, he’s done wonderful things and his heart is exactly in the right place but he’s a terrible old gasbag and when you see him walking out and representing the nation, there is something which says our dignity is not quite where it ought to be at the moment, which doesn’t belittle his achievements as a president but the physical thing is – do you do it, don’t you do it?
It’s a fine line. If all you’re doing is saying so and so has got a stutter, you’re not really achieving anything. But if it’s part of who they are, then yeah, it’s kind of fair game….”